Sega Teaches Safety Lesson

Sega Teaches Safety Lesson

Article excerpt

Electronic games giant Sega is sponsoring a Baywatch "rookie lifeguards" scheme from the Royal Life Saving Society which aims to put a free water safety video and other educational material into every UK primary school.

Mailings have gone to 25,000 schools in the past two weeks, and organisers claim 17,500 requests for packs have already been received.

The move is the latest in a flood of announcements from firms such as Tesco, WH Smith, and Lever Bros, offering help to schools and simultaneously benefiting from brand exposure and extra sales. It is believed to have cost Sega around |pounds~250,000.

"The main reason we got involved is the number of children being drowned," says Sega European marketing director Philip Ley. "It was very much a gut feeling that we should get involved.

"We have had three very successful years of educational programmes in schools, but never with children as young as this."

Life-saving training in schools has been declining for the past 20 years, but the RLSS led a successful three-year campaign to have swimming and water safety added to the National Curriculum. …